"Nonsense, Lizzie, I'm not going to be scared
away from an ideal country place because you happen to have a bad
dream!"
"Was it a bad dream I saw on the stairs last night when the lights
went out and I was looking for the candles?" said Lizzie heatedly.
"Was it a bad dream that ran away from me and out the back door, as
fast as Paddy's pig? No, Miss Neily, it was a man--Seven feet tall
he was, and eyes that shone in the dark and--"
"Lizzie Allen!"
"Well, it's true for all that," insisted Lizzie stubbornly. "And
why did the lights go out--tell me that, Miss Neily? They never
go out in the city."
"Well, this isn't the city," said Miss Cornelia decisively. "It's
the country, and very nice it is, and we're staying here all summer.
I suppose I may be thankful," she went on ironically, "that it was
only your grandmother you saw last night. It might have been the
Bat--and then where would you be this morning?"
"I'd be stiff and stark with candles at me head and feet," said
Lizzie gloomily. "Oh, Miss Neily, don't talk of that terrible
creature, the Bat!" She came nearer to her mistress. "There's bats
in this house, too--real bats," she whispered impressively. "I
saw one yesterday in the trunk room--the creature! It flew in the
window and nearly had the switch off me before I could get away!"
Miss Cornelia chuckled. "Of course there are bats," she said.
"There are always bats in the country. They're perfectly harmless,
--except to switches.
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